1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to the medical products and personal care products and especially to natural and synthetic polymers used to manufacture contact lenses, polymeric medical sutures, surgical gloves, and other similar medical items.
2. Description of Related Art
The importance of sterile techniques to modem medicine can hardly be overestimated. Almost every medical student is aware of infections introduced during surgery or during post surgical care and all users of contact lenses are familiar with the importance of clean contact lenses to the health of their eyes. A continuing problem with the use of polymeric materials has been the propensity for microorganisms to adhere to surfaces of these initially sterile polymeric materials which bacteria can subsequently lead to irritation and/or infection. The principal uses of medical grade polymers puts them in contact with various mucosal and other surfaces of the human and mammalian body. These surfaces are key to the body""s early line of defense. When mucosal surfaces are abraded, penetrated or exposed to conditions conducive to microbial growth, infection can more readily occur. To inhibit infection, polymeric materials coming in contact with mucosal surfaces could be treated with a microbicide to inhibit microbial adhesion and subsequent microbial growth leading ultimately to infection. Unfortunately, it has proven difficult to provide an effective microbicide that does not readily wash out of the material, thereby greatly reducing its effectiveness and possibly causing irritation or damage to body tissues.
In most cases polymeric products are sterilized by treatment with gases or radiation prior to packaging; however, once in contact with mucosal or other tissue surfaces they act as a substrate for adherence and multiplication of microbes. Various microbicides have been investigated, but in most cases they are released from the polymer under aqueous conditions and are then more or less toxic to body tissues. What is needed is an agent that kills or inhibits microbial growth and adherence which remains adsorbed to the polymeric material under various physiological conditions where it can function without having negative effects on living tissue.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide adsorbent materials with anti-microbial properties for use in devices which ideally can remain in contact with mammalian mucosal surfaces or tissues for short to medium term duration without introducing or supporting microbial growth.
It is a further object of the current invention that the materials with antimicrobial properties not irritate surrounding tissues.
These and additional objects that will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the following specification are provided through the use of polymers treated with crystal (gentian) violet and/or the microbicidal components from various fruits such as species of Vaccinium, (i.e., blueberry, bilberry, cranberry, and lingonberry) as well as aronia berry (Amelanchier), species of Rubus (raspberry and blackberry) and species of Vitis (grape). Various organic polymers demonstrate sufficient avidity to remove a number of microbicides from physiological solutions, including those mentioned above. Consequently, devices constructed of these materials, which have been treated with microbicide(s), release insignificant quantities of microbicide into aqueous solution. The presence of adsorbed microbicide(s) allows the polymer to inhibit microbial growth in a number of different situations. This makes the invention ideal for any uses where microbe-free adsorbent material is needed.